The Havre High golf team wrapped up its first day of practice for the 2024 season on Thursday. New Media Broadcasters spoke with head coach Dennis Murphy about the uniqueness of going from the first day of practice to roster cuts to playing in an official tournament, all taking place in the span of five days.
“We started Thursday, the 15th of August,” Murphy said. “We have two days of what we call a qualifying round.”
“We take all of our athletes that are interested in playing golf,” Murphy continued. “They play an 18-hole qualifier during those two days and then the top individuals that come out of those two days will be considered our varsity team on our boys’ and girls’.”
“Then, they jump in right away on Monday, the 19th (of August) with the tournament in Great Falls,” Murphy said. “For our JVs, they’ll end up with a tournament on the 20th in East Helena.”
Last season, the Blue Ponies had four qualifiers for the golf state tournament. Coach Murphy discussed the outlook of how he views the team with days to go until playing in the first tournament of the year, starting with the veteran returners on the boys’ side.
“We have three golfers who were on our divisional team on the boys’ side from a year ago,” Murphy said. “They obviously have some experience.”
“We have a fourth player who played a lot of varsity last year, so I have four returning lettermen from last year’s team,” Murphy continued. “That should help us as we move ahead quickly into our season.”
“That fifth spot is going to be fought for, I’m sure, by a lot of people, but it’s open to everybody,” Murphy said. “Whoever puts up the best score up will be (on) our varsity team. I’m really happy with that situation of having four boys with experience.”
Murphy kept the female golfers’ thoughts short and sweet, saying that it will be a learning curve to have two returning varsity players along with a crop of incoming talent looking to try out and make the team.
“On the girls’ side, we have two girls that are coming back that have some varsity experience that were on our divisional team (last year), “Murphy said. “Pretty much a young squad there. It’ll be a lot of learning for them, but we have a short time, but we’ve got a little bit of time to get ready for our postseason stuff.”
The Havre High varsity golf team will come together very quickly and have its first meet next Monday in Great Falls at the Meadlow Lark Country Club. This will be the only time this season a tournament begins in the afternoon with tee times starting at 1pm. The team will then have a quick turnaround to play Eagle Falls on Tuesday beginning at 9am.
